EU's Oettinger expects decision on Google case in next few days

HANOVER (Reuters) - The European Union's digital commissioner Guenther Oettinger said he expects the European Commission to make a decision in a five-year investigation over whether Google has abused its dominant position in the next few days.

"We have to make or even force platforms, search engines to follow our rules in Europe," Oettinger said an event organized by engineering association VDMA on the sidelines of the Hanover Trade Fair.

The U.S. search giant has been engaged in a five-year-old antitrust investigation with the European Union that has stalled multiple times and caused a political uproar.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Europe's competition regulator is preparing the groundwork to file charges against the U.S. search giant.

Oettinger declined to give more details saying the decision lay with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff in Hanover; Writing by Caroline Copley, editing by David Evans)